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Winter Car Accident - A Different Legal Analysis In The Claim Process

By: Shania Aldona

Being in a winter car accident can be a sour experience. It is the busiest time for insurance companies, claim adjusters will be handling over five different accidents per day, body shops are to full capacity, and rental car companies have a hard time keeping cars in their lots to rent out to people like you.

The amount of work these places have is not the only factor that changes in a winter car accident. The way that insurance companies (and judges) look at your claim or case also changes. There are laws that only apply to winter driving condition and winter roads.

Your state might require you to have your lights on at earlier times of the day. They might require you to have snow tires, or even chains during certain times of the year or in different sections of specific roads. It is always a good idea to check your state code to make sure you are in compliance with all the regulations put forward for winter driving.

If you are not found to be in full compliance of a statute, then you could be found liable for an accident. Not having your lights on at 5:00 PM in some states will be negligence per se. You will be tagged with at least some negligence even though you nothing else wrong. In some states like in South Dakota, this could leave you with no recovery at all. Sought Dakota is a contributory negligence state. This means that if you are found "slightly" negligent for an accident, you cannot recover for any portion of the damages caused to your car or any of your injuries. Even slight negligence can leave you in a very bad position.

During a winter car accident, adjusters will be very zealous about getting you to admit to "mistakes" or to things that could be construed as negligence. They will be asking if your lights were on, and if you had the defrost function on. If there is a statute that requires you to do that, then the adjuster will make you partially or completely at fault for the accident.

Questions about road conditions will be asked trying to see if you acted reasonably under the circumstances. Even if you were in full compliance with the local state laws, the accident itself could be evidence that you were negligent. For example, you could be going at the speed limit but you could not stop on time because the road was wet. The adjuster will quickly point out that even if you were going at or below the speed limit, you acted unreasonably by going too fast for the weather conditions.

Before you give a recorded statement regarding your winter car accident, read your local law and statutes. You could be admitting to fault without even realizing it. Also remember that if a claim adjuster is quoting a law or a statute to you, always ask for it in writing and double check that such statute does apply to your situation. You will be surprised to find out that in many occasions the statute quoted does not apply or it does not even exist.

Article Source: http://www.FindAffordableInsurance.com

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